The Stowaway
by JellyPervy
Summary: At first, set during The Parting of The Ways. Will try to go along the Doctor's timeline as I add more stuff. What if a homeless girl stumbled into the Tardis and decided to secretely stay there, creating a bond with the ship who helps her hide from everyone? Mentions of homelessness, starvation, possibly PTSD, etc. Not beta'd and not Native so please point any mistakes out to me.


It all happened on that fateful day. A young girl, no one, really. She had nothing to her name, no one to name her, she was no one. She had been looking for shelter on the streets when she came across it. A peculiar blue police box. Small-ish, had doors that could open and close properly, curious enough that people would glance at it but innocuous enough not to awaken too much curiosity. The most perfect little box. So she went inside. Of course she did. It was perfect. Even when it turned out to be bigger on the inside, once she had snuck in. Much bigger, in fact. And so much madder. But mad was nice. Mad kept most people away. More than nice, mad was real. In her few years of life, she had found that ordinary people tended to blindly preach and break pre-made rules that made these same ordinary people feel self-righteous, while the mad ones just kept an open mind and created new rules as they went, only caring for what felt right, deep down. Mad was not always good, but neither was reality.

A whisper rose from her throat. "Sorry to intrude, but what are you? Some sort of ship, right? I hope you don't mind me being here, I just need a safe place away from the world." As soon as she finished this sentence, a door opened down on the side, where the wall was, as if the ship understood and welcomed her. A fleeting smile on her gaunt face later, voices started to resonate from the outside, seemingly coming towards the box. Towards her. So she ran and hid, sighing a muted "thank you" as the door slid shut behind her and she slid in turn to the floor in order to rest for a bit. Somehow, she trusted she wouldn't be found if she didn't want people to find her.

Another girl's voice resonated. "…ling me I can get back. The least I can do is help him escape." Our girl listened closely, her breathing slowing to make even less noise, if that was possible, hoping to discover more about where she was. The second girl spoke up again: "All the Tardis needs to do is make a return trip. Just reverse." Tardis? Was that the name of this ship? Return to where?

This time, it was a young man's voice that spoke up. "Yeah, but we still can't do it."

"The Doctor always said the Tardis was telepathic. This thing is alive. It can listen." Another small smile played upon the stowaway's lips, and she affectionately petted the floor underneath her. This kind of mad seemed good so far. She hoped this Doctor was not like the ones she had met, though. "It's not listening now, is it?" She held back a snort at the boy's question. Her cheeks hurt already from smiling too much. "We need to get inside it. Last time I saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened, and there was this light, and the Doctor said it was the heart of the Tardis. If we can open it, I can make contact. I can tell it what to do." Slitheen? But, more importantly, could a telepathic ship feel pain upon being opened up like that? She hoped not, though she kept on stroking the floor for good measure. "Rose." So the other girl's name was Rose. Good to know. Probably."Mmm?" "If you go back, you're going to die." The smile faltered from the nameless girl's lips and her brow furrowed at that. "That's a risk I've got to take, because there's nothing left for me here." The smile came back, but this time it was sad. "Nothing?" Ouch. "No." Double ouch. "Okay, if that's what you think, let's get this thing open."

Rose and her friend seemed to walk away, after that, but the girl didn't stay there to discover what they were up to. Her stomach rumbled, and she looked up as a door slid open, further into the corridor she was in. Walking there, she came upon a kitchen. She'd never really been into many kitchens before, but she was fairly sure that even a seasoned cook would not recognise a lot of the objects in there. She asked if she really could borrow the food, and all the cupboards and fridges and freezers opened. Thanking the Tardis, she thought that a lot of people must live in there and started to wonder if she really wouldn't be noticed at all. Looking into the fridge, however, all thoughts fled her head at the prospect of her first proper meal since… 3 days ago? She was starving.

After eating a whole sandwich, she felt like she would explode, so she cleaned up and exited the kitchen to see if there was a bedroom available. Back in the corridor, she could hear a lot of clanging and the groaning of metal put through something probably car-related, if the motor sounds were anything to go by, and she clenched her fists, really hoping that the Tardis couldn't feel pain. At that moment though, another door opened further down, and she went to it silently; brushing her hand against the wall all the while, as if to soothe the ship. She couldn't really do anything else about it, could she?

When she finally arrived to the open doorway, she couldn't hold back a gasp. The room was so much more than everything she had ever wished for. Bookshelves lined the walls, and although she couldn't read, she decided to add the word "yet" to that fact. The bedsheets were a deep midnight blue, the floor a sort of almost black grey fluffy-ish carpet, and earthy tones were scattered in light touches around the room. There was even another door to an en suite bathroom, complete with a shower, bathtub, sink and toilet. She forced herself to shower, not wanting to dirty the sheets, before finally going to bed. Today had been such a strange day, but she felt somewhat secure in the knowledge that this Tardis was not only sentient, but the ship also wanted her here. And, perhaps this feeling was the strangest thing that had happened to her that day. The idea that she could be wanted somewhere. That she could _belong_ somewhere.


End file.
